Wally Doubell and his Waker Uppers* - Tin Town (early 1930s)
3,843 views · Published 12 November 2011 · 2:31 · Indexed 20 October 2026
Channel: Jan Tak · 2011 · Music
The story goes that Wally Doubell approached the "Marais en Krugerbroers" (Marais and Kruger Brothers) band one night when Jan Marais, the band's concertina player wanted to take a break. He was such a success that the foursome formed a new band, called "Wally Doubell en sy Wakkermakers" (Wally Doubell and his Waker Uppers*) which afterwards recorded four tunes.
The band members were:
Wally Doubell: Concertina
Jan Kruger: Guitar
Chris Kruger: Guitar
Willy (Baby) Kruger: Banjo
(*Note -- the translation is a bit forced since I cannot think of a better term for the Afrikaans word "wakkermakers", but you will get the idea).
Tin Town became immensely popular, and is still played regularly by boeremusiek bands today, though under a new name, "Bikkiesdorp Vastrap" ("Blikkiesdorp" = Afrikaans for Tin Town, and "Vastrap" is a kind of partnered dance). The famous bandleader Hendrik Susan was probably the first to record this tune under the new name.
http://www.flatinternational.org/template_volume.php?volume_id=149
From what I understand, at the time this tune was recorded most railway workers lived in little tin houses supplied by the railway company, and since Wally Doubell himself was a railway employee, the tune quite aptly described the conditions under which many people lived.
http://www.boeremusiek.org.za/Afrikaans/Biografie/Orkeste/Doubell.htm (Afrikaans)
http://tinyurl.com/8ybdo8v (English via Google Translate)
Another interesting tidbit, the Marais and Kruger Brothers frequently performed with David de Lange as singer, and Baby Kruger often sang with David. Given this information it is almost certain that they guy shouting encouragement in the background is de Lange - it certainly sounds like him, and he often did the same thing in his own songs.
http://www.boeremusiek.org.za/Afrikaans/Biografie/Orkeste/Marais_Krugerbroers.htm (Afrikaans)
http://tinyurl.com/6v7a8nb (English via Google Translate)
Tin Town was released under the Singer label (Gallo) as GE 233 somewhere in the early 1930s. Dating this tune is problematic since no reliable record exist of when it was made, but as early as 1936 a reference to it appeared by the musicologist Percival Robson Kirby, in his "The musical practices of the /auni and ≠khomani Bushmen".
http://tinyurl.com/82lnkca
http://www.archivalplatform.org/blog/entry/recording_traditional/
Unfortunately I could not locate any photos of Wally Doubell, or of the original 78 RPM from which this recording has been restored, so the image used in the video is not related.
